More feelgood uselessness from the whitehouse today about getting tough with ID thieves. A task force, hooboy. Goes perfectly with that wonderfully useless legislation we got a couple of years back.

And still not a peep about anything that will actually solve the problem, namely: getting tough with the bastards who are so careless with our information in the first place.

Banks and insurance companies will continue to shift the cost of this problem onto consumers for as long as they can. If these repsponses from the federal government are any indication, it looks like it's going to continue for quite a while longer.

Hint: if you are lucky enough to live in a state that allows it, GET A SECURITY FREEZE ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT. DO IT NOW. It's not a perfect option, but you have to protect yourself somehow. Your financial institutions WANT TO KEEP YOU EXPOSED to ID theft - it's simply too profitable for them to have it be otherwise. And they evidently have successfully lobbied your federal representatives to keep it that way.